Recovering a Lost Password

Password Recovery for the Admin Account

The admin account is the system administrator or superuser account. If an administrator loses the password to this account, you can have a serious security issue. As a result, the procedure to recover the password for the admin account requires you to power cycle all fabric interconnects in a Cisco UCS domain.

When you recover the password for the admin account, you actually change the password for that account. You cannot retrieve the original password for that account.

You can reset the password for all other local accounts through Cisco UCS Manager. However, you must log in to Cisco UCS Manager with an account that includes aaa or admin privileges.

Caution

This procedure requires you to power down all fabric interconnects in a Cisco UCS domain. As a result, all data transmission in the Cisco UCS domain is stopped until you restart the fabric interconnects.

Determining the Leadership Role of a Fabric Interconnect

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Equipment tab.

Step 2

In the Equipment tab, expand Equipment > Fabric Interconnects.

Step 3

Click the fabric interconnect for which you want to identify the role.

Step 4

In the Work pane, click the General tab.

Step 5

In the General tab, click the down arrows on the High Availability Details bar to expand that area.

Step 6

View the Leadership field to determine whether the fabric interconnect is the primary or subordinate.

Verifying the Firmware Versions on a Fabric Interconnect

You can use the following procedure to verify the firmware versions on all fabric interconnects in a Cisco UCS domain. You can verify the firmware for a single fabric interconnect through the Installed Firmware tab for that fabric interconnect.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Navigation pane, click the Equipment tab.

Step 2

In the Equipment tab, click the Equipment node.

Step 3

In the Work pane, click the Firmware Management tab.

Step 4

In the Installed Firmware tab, verify that the following firmware versions for each fabric interconnect match the version to which you updated the firmware:

Kernel version

System version

Recovering the Admin Account Password in a Standalone Configuration

This procedure will help you to recover the password that you set for the admin account when you performed an initial system setup on the fabric interconnect. The admin account is the system administrator or superuser account.

Before You Begin

Physically connect the console port on the fabric interconnect to a computer terminal or console server

Determine the running versions of the following firmware:

The firmware kernel version on the fabric interconnect

The firmware system version

Tip

To find this information, you can log in with any user account on the Cisco UCS domain.

Procedure

Step 1

Connect to the console port.

Step 2

Power cycle the fabric interconnect:

Turn off the power to the fabric interconnect.

Turn on the power to the fabric interconnect.

Step 3

In the console, press one of the following key combinations as it boots to get the loader prompt:

Ctrl+l

Ctrl+Shift+r

You may need to press the selected key combination multiple times before your screen displays the loader prompt.

Recovering the Admin Account Password in a Cluster Configuration

This procedure will help you to recover the password that you set for the admin account when you performed an initial system setup on the fabric interconnects. The admin account is the system administrator or superuser account.

Before You Begin

Physically connect a console port on one of the fabric interconnects to a computer terminal or console server

Obtain the following information:

The firmware kernel version on the fabric interconnect

The firmware system version

Which fabric interconnect has the primary leadership role and which is the subordinate

Tip

To find this information, you can log in with any user account on the Cisco UCS domain.

Procedure

Step 1

Connect to the console port.

Step 2

For the subordinate fabric interconnect:

Turn off the power to the fabric interconnect.

Turn on the power to the fabric interconnect.

In the console, press one of the following key combinations as it boots to get the loader prompt:

Ctrl+l

Ctrl+Shift+r

You may need to press the selected key combination multiple times before your screen displays the loader prompt.

Step 3

Power cycle the primary fabric interconnect:

Turn off the power to the fabric interconnect.

Turn on the power to the fabric interconnect.

Step 4

In the console, press one of the following key combinations as it boots to get the loader prompt:

Ctrl+l

Ctrl+Shift+r

You may need to press the selected key combination multiple times before your screen displays the loader prompt.